Who Says You Can't Have It All?
by profigymulligan
Summary: Harry lost everything through betrayal and destruction. He's going back to prevent it all and perhaps find happiness on the way.
1. Chapter 1

Who Says You Can't Have it All?

A/N: Okay, I got a little bored as it is holidays for me from university at the moment and I have been looking at a lot of different stories in the Harry Potter genre. I have noticed there are not an awful lot of Harry/Fleur stories in this genre, so I am going to attempt one and hopefully it will be better than some I have had the misfortune to try to read. As my previous story, this story will first involve time-travel, although in this case it is instigated by Harry himself and he has no other help than his own. I don't speak French and don't intend to in this story, or to imitate the atrocious accent Fleur seems to receive as much as Hagrid. Personally I consider it a little racist the way both Fleur and Hagrid are portrayed in the books along with Viktor Krum. Consider that while these characters are from a different country to most of the English students within Hogwarts, their accents really shouldn't be much different from the Scottish burr that Mcgonnagall is supposed to have. Yet her accent is not intimated in the way she speaks and neither is there the Irish twang when Seamus speaks in the books. So in this thought, all characters will be speaking English, the way I speak anyhow, which is the Australian version if anyone cared to know. BTW I am actually legally blind so sometimes I will make spelling errors as I decipher the spelling of some words from the way it sounds. If you find spelling errors let me know. Cheers.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, his likeness or the publishing rights to Harry Potter. This is purely for my own entertainment and anyone else who cares to read this work.

Prologue.

Harry Potter aged 60 stood within the chamber of secrets under what once was Hogwarts. Though he was in his sixties, he looked no older than 40. His hair was a little longer than in his youth and was streaked slightly with grey, giving him a distinguished appearance. His body was that of a fighter. Hard, compacted muscled showed through the way his robes lay against his frame. He was also a lot more scarred than he used to be as intricate lines from battles long past in history had had their effect upon his body. His eyes, no longer obscured by glasses glittered within their emerald depths with supressed power. His once famous lightning bolt scar was a bare trace upon his forehead and was almost hidden by the deep tan which covered his entire body. He was dressed in fine battle robes that were made from a combination of dragon-hide and acramantula silk with runes embroidered in silver along the entire length and width of the cloth, ensuring protection and self-repair. Around his neck was a small necklace which contained a tiny trunk, which had all of his possessions that he carried with him at all times, something which would be useless in a short time, if everything went to plan.

Things had not gone well shortly after the departure of his children to Hogwarts. Harry, now an Auror within the DMLE had gone to work one day when he was stopped by security as soon as he flooed into the office. New wards had just been put upon the entrances to the Ministry of Magic and one of them, which he had known about, but not considered important to tell anyone about were the wards detecting certain mind-controlling potions, such as love potions and loyalty potions. The reason he had been stopped was that both were found to be within his system. His Boss, a man by the name of Myles Pearce had instructed him to go to St. Mungos immediately along with two other aurors to make sure there was not a compulsion component to the potions to refuse to seek treatment if potions were ever suspected. This reason in itself should have caused an alarm bell to ring in his head, but being under the potions and apparently for so long, he didn't consider anything but wondering what was going on.

An unpleasant 48 hours later after a regimen of purging and flushing potions a report was handed to him, with a copy going off to the DMLE. His life at that point had been crushed with the news. He had been on a strong loyalty potion keyed to Albus Dumbledore since his 1st year at Hogwarts. This was the potion that had the compulsion component to it, which explained his almost pathological aversion to seeking treatment from a medical professional be it at the hospital wing or St. Mungos. He only found out later on that his boss had suspected something amiss and had instigated the ward changes in the Ministry of Magic to check his suspicion without alerting anyone, as it was also a good security measure to have for the government building regardless.

The fact he had been potion to be loyal to Dumbledore came as a shock, but the news of the two other potions were the greatest disasters to his life. The first was a second loyalty potion, although of lesser strength to the one from Dumbledore. This one was keyed to the Weasley family with a secondary key to Ron, explaining all the times he had forgiven Ron for what he considered now to be betrayals of great magnitude, a prime example being the Tri-Wizard tournament. The second potion though was amortentia keyed to Ginny Weasley. He felt utterly betrayed to find this out and knew now that he had never loved her. The slight intoxicating effect also explained the problems he began to have in fifth year with controlling his emotions as well as the events of his sixth and supposed to be 7th year. He now knew that Ginny would either spend the rest of her life in Azkaban or given the Dementor's kiss for line theft, multiple counts of rape, administering a controlled substance to the head of a most ancient and noble house. He also suspected that her mother was going to be spending time in Azkaban as well as there was no way that Ginny was able to make those potions as she was a mediocre potions brewer and wouldn't be able to make the more complex of potions such as amortentia.

He never did see her again, as when he was released from hospital, Ginny and her mother, as it had proved his suspicions were correct, were in ministry holding cells and because of his involvement, he was excluded from the trial as a judge and he did not wish to appear in court as the victim. As far as he was concerned he had seen enough of her. Luckily he had his friends behind him during this time. Ron was found to have nothing to do with the whole potions incident and was fuming mad at his family for what they had done to his best friend. Hermione was also appalled at what she had considered her best girlfriend had done to her best friend. They both took him into their home while the whole affair was sorted out and he used their guest room as a sanctuary where he could begin to put his life back together.

Shortly after though, things began to happen at such a fast rate, he could barely keep his head above water not to drown in sorrow. Some idiot in the muggle governments of the world had decided that he wanted to be ruler of the world and had launched a nuclear strike against his enemies, which turned out to be most of the western world. Apparently this ruler had had enough time to purchase nuclear weapons from the former Soviet countries and transport them to secret locations around the world, unbeknownst to the rest of the world. General Green, or so he was known as had made a lucky strike and this just outside of Hogwarts, destroying everything within a 20 kilometre radius within a thermonuclear blast, including the castle of Hogwarts and all the students, including his two children. Harry had been still on leave at the time due to compassionate grounds and thus had not been within the London area as Ron and Hermione lived on the coast when the bombs hit London and obliterated not only the ministry of Magic, but his friends from existence. Harry later found out that the nuclear bomb that had destroyed Hogwarts was actually an accident as it too was meant for London but a malfunction in its programming caused it to veer off course and land in just the wrong place, at least for Harry and most of the British magical world.

It took him a few years, but eventually he managed to track down General Green and put him to death within one of his own uranium enrichment factories, port-keying the general into the centre of the reactor, giving him a taste of what happened to his children.

General Green's destruction did not only occur in Britain though as he had targeted major cities of most countries in order to cause as much damage as possible. From the tortured general's own mind, he found out that the general had somehow found out about the magical world when a death eater attack caused the death of his own family back during the second blood war when Voldemort was looking to expand his horizons across the sea from Britain as he was assured of victory in Britain at the time. This caused the general to become unstable and through his drive and insanity, which he kept well hidden from most, he managed to become leader of his nation and began his plan to annihilate most of the magical world. Since most magical populations tended to centralise in major cities, his strikes managed to decimate 90% of the magical population.

It was after this fact had surfaced that Harry conceived of an idea to go back to the past and to rectify things so that the second blood war did not occur and if he played his cards right, he would find someone to be truly happy with, rather than the potion Queen's decision of her own daughter. It had turned out that Molly had drugged him with the loyalty potion for both Dumbledore as well as the one for her family and finally the amortentia. Apparently Severus Snape was a lot of things, but to use his own art to enslave others was a place he would not go, which was saying something considering he was a loyal death eater in the end, so he had found out after finding Dumbledore's journals in a lower vault of the castle that still remains as it was quite a ways underground in a storage room for things that were left behind by previous teachers and headmasters when they died. Here he found out that the only way that Dumbledore had any control over Severus Snape was through his own dosage of a loyalty potion unbeknownst to the potions master. Apparently the night Dumbledore was killed; Severus Snape had neglected dinner as he was in the middle of brewing that was only interrupted by Professor Flitwick's disturbing him to let him know the castle was being attacked. What Dumbledore did not know and Harry only found out later when he sifted through the knowledge left in his head from the soul fragment that had been destroyed by Voldemort's killing curse, was that the dark mark had its own loyalty compulsion to it which was constantly in battle with the potion in Snape's system. Thus because a dose was missed, Snape was able to exact his planned revenge on the headmaster. This had been the main reason Dumbledore had trust in Snape as he had him potioned all that time, rather than because he regretted any of his past doings.

From that time onwards, Harry travelled the world, seeking abandoned wizard manors whose families had died in the holocaust seeking their family libraries and family magic in order to fulfil his plan, which took over 10 years for him to complete. His search began in Britain, where he raided most of the pureblood manors and then spread out around the world. Finally though it was done. He stood within the chamber of secrets and looked over the ritual circle he had crated which comprised of thousands upon thousands of runes, filled with a potion of his own creation to harness the very power of the magic that surged through the earth to fulfil his objective, to travel back to his third year at Hogwarts, where he could begin his changes. The chamber was the perfect place for this as Hogwarts was built upon the intersection of 3 ley lines and the chamber itself was built upon this nexus of power.

Harry disrobed and walked into the centre of the circle with only a ritual dagger, which was magically neutral as no other active magic, was permitted within the centre of the circle. He began to chant in a language long past dead and not remembered for thousands of years. The chant went on for five minutes and slowly the runes around him began to glow with an eldritch light as the potions began the process of energising the runes with the magic of the world. As he neared the completion of his chant the runes lit up with a brilliant flash and that was the last thing Harry knew.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

A/N: Sorry for the delay, but my University work takes precedence over my leisure writing so this will be slowly updated, but it will be completed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter; I don't think I could be that much of a masochist to a character.

The first Harry knew was a singing of a melodious songbird. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was still in the chamber of secrets, but things had definitely changed since he was last conscious.

Fawkes was standing next to his body, only just having finished crying on the wound that had been in his arm from the basilisk bite. The fang lay next to his left arm, as did the diary of one Tom Marvollo Riddle. Before anything else could happen, Harry grabbed the fang as he remembered doing so in his second year, only this time he did not wait for the grandstanding Voldemort seemed to like and plunged the dagger straight into the centre of the book, causing what looked like black ink to spurt from the diary. He saw the image of Voldemort's younger self twist and contort in agony, shrieking until he disappeared in a flash of magical light.

Harry stood up and walked over to where Ginny lay and before she could stir, he stunned her. Fawkes cocked his head in question at Harry's actions and seeing this, Harry answered the bird's unanswered question.

'Trust me, the last thing I need to handle is an over-emotional pre-teen who has a hero worship complex.'

Fawkes seemed to think about this and then chirped in acknowledgement, making Harry grin. Harry then walked to the head of slytherin and climbing up entered the head and walked through the tunnel that led back into the stone wall. Harry followed this tunnel for a little while as it twisted and turned and then finally ended in what appeared to be a blank wall, save for the small carving of a snake that was slightly hidden by the years of decay to the wall. Harry hissed in parcel tongue for the first time since he had arrived back into the past.

'Open in the name of the true heir of Slytherin.'

After saying the words, a door slowly etched itself out of the rock in front of him and Harry watched on as the door then melted. He walked through into the personal library of Salazar Slytherin. Using his wand he conjured a large box and began shrinking and packing the books he found into the box with a few swishes. He frowned as he realised his body, with the malnutrition and its youth could not handle this work for too long as it had already been through an extreme ordeal today. He quickly finished and shrunk the box into a small matchbook size and slipped it into his pants pocket, where it would remain unobtrusive. He then turned and walked back out into the main chamber. Picking up Gryffindore's sword as well as the sorting hat and levitating Ginny behind him, Harry walked out of the chamber, Fawkes flying above his right shoulder. With a whispered 'Close.' The door to the chamber of secrets shut upon the corpse of the basilisk and he continued on to the rock pile, where he saw his best friend for the first time in many years, busily clearing a hole for him.

'Harry!' Ron yelled when he saw his friend. Harry grinned at Ron and once he had been helped through and then levitated Ginny through, gave his friend a large hug, making sure to not hug for too long of course as he was supposed to only be 12.

He allayed any fears that Ron had about his sister being still unconscious as he explained that while he was sure she was fine, he did not want her to awaken in a chamber next to a very large and frightening monster as well as making sure she did not hurt herself any further as she had come close to death. Ron accepted this and they continued back through the tunnel to the beginning of the pipe that led back up to moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Lockhart trailing them with a vapid smile on his face.

They both looked at the pipe and then at each other for a moment. Fawkes then flew in front of them wagging his tail feathers in their face. Harry looked at Fawkes and said

'I don't want to wake Ginny if I don't have to Fawkes. Can you transport us all up with out me waking her?'

Fawkes nodded and chirped. Harry lowered Ginny to the ground and then kneeling and taking her hand he then got Ron to hold his hand, while holding onto Lockhart, although for a moment, although both didn't know it, both Harry and Ron considered leaving the ponce in the chamber. Fawkes then landed on Harry's shoulder and with a flash of flame, they were all transported up into Myrtle's bathroom.

Later after having dealt with Dumbledore, the Weasley's and Lucius Malfoy, Harry made his way to the hospital wing to be checked out. In his previous life, he was just patted on the head and sent to his bed until the feast had been organised, but he wasn't sure how much damage the venom had done to his body as well as getting a head-start on the fixing of his body. He entered the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey bustled up to him and taking one look at his slime and blood soaked robes, led him to a bathroom, where he had a nice hot shower and changed into hospital pajamas. Settling into his hospital bed, he waited for the nurse to come back.

'So Harry, what have you done to yourself this time? Madame Pomfrey asked as she walked up to his bed. Harry then went through the process of explaining exactly what had happened to him throughout the whole chamber of secrets including the basilisk bite. Madame Pomfrey stood there in disbelief for a moment and then conjured a large roll of parchment and began a very intricate pattern of spells that Harry identified as a full diagnostic. Although he knew, he also knew that he shouldn't know what she was doing and so asked.

'What does that spell do Madame Pomfrey?'

As he asked this, a quill was enchanted by the mediwitch and began writing down the results on the roll of parchment. Once this had begun she turned to him and said.

'First off if you are going to get yourself into life threatening struggles every year, why don't you call me Poppy. I swear you have been in this wing more than most students do their whole time at Hogwarts and its only your second year!'

Harry couldn't help but grin and nod, answering

'Okay Poppy.'

She glared at him half with amusement, half with frustration as she realised he did not deny anything.

'As for the spell, this will give me an in-depth overall knowledge of your body and its functions. It will let me know any past injuries as well as how your body is coping with your recent injuries an what I then need to do in order to put you back together, again!'

Thinking it better to remain silent than incur her wrath from the rather cheeky reply he thought up, he sat back in bed and waited for the results to come through. Harry knew for certain that there were no earlier injuries as his magic had healed him; even scars disappeared after a few days. He also knew that at this point if there had been any potions in his system the basilisk venom, being such a potent magical substance, negated all potions within his system.

After a time of approximately five minutes, Madame Pomfrey sighed and looking at Harry said

'Harry, while you were bitten by the basilisk and the wound healed by the headmaster's phoenix, the venom is still running within your system. This means from now on, you will need a specific type of potions for any injuries in order for the potion to take affect. While normal brewing would be done by the potionsmaster, special modifications are not his repertoire, especially for medical potions. I will be brewing your potions from now on. This means that no matter what anyone else says, you need to come to me if you are to take any potions. The results if someone else gives you potions that are not specifically made to take into account your unique chemistry and magic, it could cause a rather large magical explosion within your core, meaning you would probably be killed.'

To this end She turned aside and called for a house elf. One appeared wearing the customary Hogwarts crest on its tea towel it wore like a toga.

'This is a direct order for the Hogwarts Mediwitch.' Madame Pomfrey commanded the elf with a no nonsense type air. 'From now on the Hogwart's house elves are to make sure that any food or drink that is presented to Harry Potter is to be potion free. No potions, no matter if from the potions master or from the headmaster are o be given to Harry Potter. The consequences could be fatal to Mr. Potter. Do you understand?' She asked the elf before her.

'Yes Madame Pomfrey, I will notify all house elves of your instructions. No potions shall come to Harry Potter, we will make sure of it.'

Satisfied, Madame Pomfrey turned away from the elf, who popped back to the kitchens, and ran another diagnostic on the healed puncture wound on hi arm.

'Harry, there is not much I can do about the scar as it is highly magical and therefore unable to healed by magic. What I suggest you do though is to exercise it constantly from now on with some exercises I will give you so that the scar tissue under the skin will be torn and rebuilt to proper muscle by the remaining healing properties of the phoenix. I must ask you over the next few days not to perform any magic, just to make sure that the influx into your magical system stabilises.'

Harry nodded in agreement and promised the mediwitch that if he felt ill in the slightest, he would head back to the hospital wing to be checked out. He also knew he would also be back in the next few days in order to make sure that he was there when his best friend, Hermione Granger was revived from her petrification. In the end, Harry was glad that his plan to travel back through time had worked out so well and so exact. The fact he had been through a traumatic experience, such as the killing of the basilisk and nearly dying from it as well as the infusing of basilisk venom and phoenix tears into his system would be good excuses should be slip up and show more power than he normally would or if he acted slightly out of character. By the beginning of next year he could then show more power than he had previously as his excuse of two powerful magical substances enterin his system had been verified through Poppy that it would affect his magical core.

Having arrived at the Gryffindore common room, he walked up to his dorm room and after taking a long hot shower, went to bed and had his first night's rest in the past.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: In case anyone realised, yes I made a mistake with the last chapter, calling it chapter 2 instead of chapter 1. Thanks to the reviewer who pointed this out. However, hey, I am somewhat lazy and it does not really matter at the end of the day.

Recommendation for a good read: Just came across this book recently and laughed my ass off when reading it, even though it was somewhat grim. Story is dark recollections: Adrian's undead diary by Chris Philbrook. Trust me, you will like it.

Chapter 3.

Harry woke up the next morning, feeling a little more energised compared to the previous evening. He once again marvelled at how he had managed to land in exactly the right time that would cover all of the changes his magic and intellect would go through. As the basilisk bite and phoenix tears along with the trauma such an encounter would cause, could easily explain his growth in power as well as his personality changing somewhat and his want to improve himself. He planned to talk to his head of house this morning to change his subjects for next year, as he knew that divination was a complete waste of time, where he could be doing something useful, like organising his sock drawer.

Harry rose from his bed and went through his morning routine; showering, looking at his hair in disgust and getting dressed for the day in his more fitting of Dudley's hand-me-downs. Making another mental note that shopping was on the cards this summer, Harry went downstairs and out through the portrait hole. As he made his way towards the infirmary once more as he wanted a little more information as well as a request to Poppy as he now knew that he needed her help if he was to negate some of the damage his relatives had done to his body.

Upon arrival, Harry saw that Poppy was performing diagnostics on the victims of the petrification's to check their status, so Harry wandered over to Hermione's bedside and held her hand while Poppy finished doing what she had to. He talked to Hermione, telling her what he had been up to recently, letting her know that he had found the basilisk and Ginny, and rescuing the first-year from her own stupidity. Seeing that Poppy had finished, he said goodbye to Hermione and went over to talk to the medi-witch.

'Poppy, can I ask you a couple of questions regarding my condition?' Harry asked. Poppy smiled at Harry and nodded, waiting expectantly.

'Poppy, are you able to tell me what modifications are needed to be done in order for me to use normal potions? Or is it a complex process?' He queried.

'Well it really depends upon the potion that you are going to consume Harry. Some potions use a powerful magical creature part or have a volatile aspect to it such as the porcupine quills in the first potions you ever made at Hogwarts.' She explained. 'What we need to do for each is to take into account the type of creature and the nature of the volatility and work out whether this would interact with the venom and tears within your system. Actually it is more the venom that is the problem as Phoenix tears are somewhat neutral magically when combined with other magic's, while venom due to its destructive nature can react quite badly.'

Harry thought about this for a while and then asked 'This does sound complex, but I think it is something I do need to know, especially if I am to make potions for myself in the future. Are you able to teach me potions instead of Professor  
>Snape? We do not get along due to his enmity with my father in the past and I doubt he would be willing to take the time in order to not only teach me how to brew for the population in general, but myself in particular?'<p>

Poppy internally was very happy with Harry's request. As he had termed the request in the parameters of his future brewing for himself, which could be considered a health issue as it was a medical condition, which caused this, she could then take the steps to take him under her wing, so to speak and teach him as he requested. The headmaster for this reason could not complain as it was under her jurisdiction for medical treatment and providing relevant information in order to teach patients how to cope with the future problems their medical conditions could cause.

'Harry that should not be a problem. I will inform Professor McGonagall of our arrangement and as of next year, all of your potion times will be here with me.' She said with a small smile. Harry smiled back as he had just managed with a few questions to remove the biggest pain in his ass from interacting with him on a regular basis within 24 hours of arriving. Harry also knew because he had mentioned his concerns about brewing for himself that he had negated any objections Dumbledore could raise as well as the Potions Pratt A.K.A Snape. Harry also knew that in his past future, that he had been extremely lucky that his magical core had not exploded when he was dosed with potions and only the fact that he had not consumed any magically potent potions until he had been informed of his condition once he had gone into Auror training and had the requisite medical scan through St Mungos. This had saved his life. He often wondered if Dumbledore had not died during his sixth year, whether he may have used this instability to detonate his magical core while he was fighting Voldemort to take them both out. It was at this point in his future, once he had found out about the loyalty potion as well as the instability that he decided that Dumbledore would be having something similar to his original fate happen to him regardless of what else he changed about his future.

'Thank you Poppy. Now the other thing is to do with my past treatment by my relatives. As you probably could tell from your scans, I was not brought up with the proper nutrition, which has subsequently damaged not only my growth but also my eyesight. Is there a way this can be either negated, fixed or if not at the very least minimised?' He asked the medi-witch. She thought about it for a moment and then went to retrieve the parchment she had written on the day before with his results of the scans. After perusing the parchment for about five minutes, she looked up and answered

'Harry I don't see why we can't fix the malnutrition with a combination of nutrition and strong growth potions. This combined with the phoenix tears should be able to negate the malnutrition. If I also add in a corrective eye potion, that should then fix the problem entirely. As your condition is more a developmental issue due to outside forces and not innate within you, it can be fixed. I will need to however, brew the requisite potions, so come back in 3 days and I will be able to start the process.'

Harry smiled widely at the news and thanked her profusely for her help. "Poppy just smiled and patted him on the head, telling Harry that it was her duty after all and if he ever had any future questions, to come and ask and she would be more than happy to answer him. On querying when the petrified victims would be cured, Harry was informed that they would be cured this evening and was then given permission by Poppy to be there when Hermione was cured.

Minerva McGonagall was sitting in her office, going through the minutia associated with the head of house and deputy headmistress, when she received a knock upon her office door. Calling 'Enter.', she was surprised to see Harry Potter coming through her door.

'Mr Potter. What do I owe the pleasure?' She asked in a warm tone. Harry was at first a little surprised by this welcome, until he realised that he had actually saved not only the school from closing, but also her home, as like most professors, she resided within Hogwarts year-round, except for the occasional holiday.

'Well Professor, I have been giving my performance in class a lot of thought, especially since the chamber of secrets incident. I know I have not been performing up to my potential, mainly due to the past reactions to my grades from my relatives. I promise from now on that I will do better in my classes. In this regard, I wanted to change my electives, adding arithmency and ancient runes to my course-load. I believe that these extra courses will benefit me greatly in the future.'

Minerva McGonagall was pleasantly surprised by the mature response she received from Harry Potter. She assumed that the chamber of secrets incident had caused Harry to grow up a little, something that she approved of whole-heartedly. She scowled when she heard that the Dursleys had deliberately caused Harry to dumb-down his grades but knew that nothing would be done if she went complaining to Albus. Smiling at Harry, she took out some parchment, made a notation, and added the then completed parchment to Harry's file. She was then further pleasantly surprised when Harry asked her for additional work over the holidays to help him achieve a greater understanding of the coursework they had gone over the past two years in his attempt to improve himself. After handing Harry the additional work for the summer, she wished him a pleasant holiday and Harry left the office.

Harry was pleased with his meeting with his head of house for two reasons. First, the extra work would give him the excuse as to why he showed a greater understanding of magic next year when he returned to Hogwarts. Secondly, the fact that he showed the chamber of secrets had affected him so much would also help him cover for his maturity that he would now be exhibiting, as he did not intend to try to act like his 13 year-old self the next school year. After quickly ducking back to his dorm-room in order to drop off the extra homework, he then decided what he could do next to forward his plans. After pausing for a moment, he realised what he could do and set off to the seventh floor corridor with the tapestry of dancing trolls.

When Harry arrived at the tapestry, he summoned the room of hidden things. Once the door appeared, he opened it and stepped inside, closing the door behind him so it disappeared. Taking a quick look over the vast majority of detritus that was within the room; Harry knew that he needed a different solution to him just walking through and inspecting everything. He took out his wand and was about to cast a spell when he remembered what Poppy had said to him regarding using his magic. Sighing, he put his wand away and thought about how he could accomplish his task. Realising that he was in the room of requirement, he mentally asked for all trunks within the room to be brought to him. As soon as he wished this, twenty trunks of different types and in different states of repair appeared before him. Being careful so that none of the trunks fell on him, Harry moved the intact trunks to one side and opened each one. He was surprised at first as he discovered that most of them actually contained items such as clothing and books, until he realised that these were probably trunks from previous teachers who for one reason or another had died at Hogwarts and thus their belongings were left at the school. Realising this, Harry went through each compartment within the trunks, scavenged what he needed from each trunk, and discarded what was not needed in one of the broken and empty trunks. He managed to gather quite a collection of books in a range of topics from herbology to arithmency and ancient runes. Harry selected the best of the trunks, a five-compartment model with built in library in the fourth compartment and potions lab in the fifth. He dropped the books into the library compartment for later sorting and then wished the remaining trunks to be put back where they had come from within the room. They disappeared silently and Harry marvelled once more at the magic that had gone into the construction of this room.

Repeating his previous action, wishing this time for all of the books in the room to be presented to him, Harry was shocked at the towering pile of books that were presented to him. Not having the time now or really the desire, Harry asked the room that all of the books be put into his trunk, which they did with a barely discernable sound as the piles of books rose into the air and floated down into the library room. Although Harry had gone through a long period of study in order to come back into the past, he knew that he did not know everything. The very breadth of knowledge that he knew must have been lost in this room, which had probably been purged in the past by subsequent ministries, presented a very great opportunity. The very fact that Harry knew that most of these books would probably be censored if they were ever discovered ensured that he would never donate them to Hogwarts as he knew that Dumbledore was actually worse than the Ministry of Magic in some respects. If Dumbledore disagreed with a particular type of magic being available to the public, Harry knew that the library at Hogwarts would mysteriously lose all references to the topic, even from the restricted section. He knew this was true as he worked out later on that Dumbledore had done something similar in regards to Harry's family and their role within magical society.

Once the books had finished their trip into his now new trunk, Harry decided that it was time to speak to Dobby. Straightening up, he called out

'Dobby!'

With a crack, the house elf appeared before him clad in his pillowcase and the sock he had liberated from the diary that Harry had given him.

'Harry Potter wishes to speak to Dobby?' The house elf enquired, bouncing up and down in excitement at the fact that his hero had called him. Harry smiled at the elf, fondly remembering the elf's actions that had warned them of Umbridge in his fifth year and her raid on Dumbledore's army as well as the help he had given Harry in his fourth year and his subsequent help, which had cost him his life during Harry's capture in Malfoy Manor.

'Yes Dobby. I wanted to know if you would like to be my personal house elf and protect my secrets?' Harry enquired, already knowing the answer that Dobby would give. Dobby squealed in delight and threw himself at Harry, wrapping Harry's legs in a hug.

'Yes sir! Dobby would love to become Harry Potter's personal house elf.' Knowing from his previous study how to bind a house elf, Harry laid his hands on top of Dobby's head and intoned

'I Harry James Potter, Heir to the most ancient and noble house of Potter, claim Dobby as my elf. I will grant him a position within my house in exchange for his service and protection of my secrets and my person, so mote it be.' With these words, there was a large flash as the oath took place and the bond between Harry and Dobby took shape. Stepping back from the house elf, Harry looked down at Dobby and said

'Ok Dobby here is the rules of my house. You must wear a uniform representing the house of Potter and befitting my station and your station as my personal elf. I also must emphasise the rule that if you do something you think is wrong, you are to inform me immediately and not punish yourself without authorisation. I will decide whether you have done something wrong and what, if any, punishment there will be. Understood?' Dobby nodded eagerly and Harry smiled once more.

'Okay Dobby, for now I would like you to go to the kitchens and work with the house elves there until I have need of you.' Harry ordered. Dobby disappeared with a small pop, leaving the young wizard alone once more. Smiling at having achieved all he needed to for now, Harry walked out of the room of hidden things, shrinking the trunk in his hands by pressing a rune on its side and went to find Ron until the evening, when he would, once more, return to the hospital wing.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

Harry found himself sitting later that evening in the infirmary once more but this time, sitting as a visitor next to Hermione's bed where the process to un-petrify her would begin shortly. Ron was conspicuous by his absence and Harry knew that while at the moment Ron was a typical 12-year-old boy who thought girls were just weird boys, that he would eventually pull his finger out and realise what he had in front of him in the form of Hermione. Their marriage had been a happy one, despite the constant arguments they had. They both loved each other with an intensity he had admired and he knew would have lasted the test of time had not the events which had brought their lives to an end had not occurred. Harry was determined that both would die of old age this time though.

Poppy came forward with a goblet filled with the mandrake restorative draught and smeared a slight amount of the liquid onto Hermione's lips, allowing them to un-petrify in order to open her lips to pour in the potion. Once this had occurred, she carefully poured the liquid into Hermione's mouth. Harry watched silently in fascination as Hermione un-petrified from the inside-out. First to gain colour was her face and throat as they were the areas where her body was first exposed to the potion, then slowly the process continued down her body until with a sudden gasp, she began breathing. While all of this was happening, Poppy was closely monitoring the condition of Hermione, waving her wand constantly, and making sure that nothing out of the ordinary happened. She smiled slightly when Hermione took in a gasp of air. Harry then noticed that her eyes closed for a moment while her body reassimilated itself in an un-petrified state, then they flew open and she bolted upright in the bed. Harry expected this as Poppy had warned him that she would re-live the terror involved with the last moments before her petrification. Harry took Hermione into his arms and rocked her slightly, saying into her ear

'It's alright Hermione, you're safe. I'm here and the basilisk is gone.' Upon hearing Harry's voice, Hermione relaxed, then when she heard that the basilisk was gone, she turned to him in question. Gently pushing her back into the bed, Harry explained the whole incident with the basilisk and the shade of Tom Riddle. When Hermione heard he had been bitten, hr eyes went wide in fear, not realising that he was obviously alright until he pulled up the sleeve of his robe and showed her the healed puncture wound.

'See, I am all healed. I just have to watch my magic use in the short-term and in the long-term I need to make sure potions I take have been altered to take care of my now altered physiology.' Harry explained to Hermione.

Once Hermione was given the all-clear, Harry led Hermione down to the great hall for the celebration feast he had been able to persuade headmaster Dumbledore to delay until the victims were all able to participate. Walking in, Harry led Hermione over to the Gryffindor table and sat her down next to him and across from Neville Longbottom and Ron. Noticing Hermione, Ron said

'It's good to see you out of the hospital wing, Hermione.' Hermione smiled at this and thanked him and Neville echoed his sentiments somewhat shyly. Hermione smiled at Neville and proceeded to load her plate up with food. Harry did the same, but put a substantial more amount of food into his plate, ensuring that he ate nearly twice as much as he normally would have at this time. Both Ron and Hermione's eyes widened slightly at the amount of good in Harry's plate. Noticing this, Harry explained about how his body was still healing itself and that Poppy was about to give him nutrient and growth potions and that she suggested he eat as much as possible within the next few days while she prepared the potions he would need to take as his body would require resources in order to grow and repair what had been damaged during his childhood. While they both were not happy to hear about his treatment while he was younger, both Hermione and Ron accepted his reasoning and both promised themselves they would make sure his relatives would be given something to think about when they were legally able to perform magic, something that would make them regret ever having a dark thought about one Harry Potter.

Later that evening while the four sat in the common room Neville and Ron were playing chess and Harry and Hermione were chatting about classes for next year. When Hermione mentioned that she was going to take all classes next year, Harry admitted to changing his schedule so that he had arithmency and ancient runes along with divination and care of magical creatures. On hearing this, there were three reactions. Ron looked horrified at all of the work Harry was voluntarily undertaking; Neville was looking slightly green at the thought of taking so many courses and the homework that was involved and Hermione gave a squeal of delight and hugged Harry, saying

'Harry that is wonderful! We are going to have so much fun together!' Harry smiled at the girl he considered a sister and listened as she went into extensive detail about the research she had done about the new topics before she had been petrified and her speculations about the pace of the topics next year. While everyone had their opinions, only Harry knew the real reason he had chosen so many courses. He knew that with so many topics next year that Professor McGonagall would give him and Hermione time-turners to be able to attend all classes and he meant to use this to as much advantage as possible.

Once everyone had gone to sleep, Harry crept out of the common room under his invisibility cloak and made his way down to the second floor bathroom that Myrtle haunted. Myrtle seemed to not be there at the moment and Harry suspected she was peeking on a couple in the prefect's bathroom as she had done to him during his fourth year. Turning to the sink, he commanded 'open and 'stairs'. Once the runnel had configured itself, Harry made his way down the stairs, making sure to close the entrance behind him. As he made his way along the tunnel after reaching the bottom of the stirs, Harry began walking over the many bones that were laying along the path. He made his way through the hole that Ron had managed to scrape out of the pile of rubble that the cave-in has caused and opened the large vault door with another hissed 'open'

The chamber looked exactly the same as when he had seen it last and the basilisk looked as if he had only just killed it. Harry knew that the large reptile would not decompose for many years as the innate magic of the animal would keep it preserved for years, although if his plans worked out, he would have it rendered down and sold to the highest bidder before the summer's end. Making his way over to where he had stabbed the diary, Harry spotted the large stain of black ink that revealed the location. Kneeling beside the puddle, Harry took out his wand and pointing it at the mess, he intoned

'I Harry James Potter, Heir to the most noble and ancient house of Potter do hereby claim the right of conquest against one Tom Marvollo Riddle. Thrice has Tom Marvollo Riddle engaged in combat with me and thrice has he been vanquished. By this right I do claim it as so. So Mote it be.'

A golden light came out of his wand and struck the puddle of ink. The magic then rose up and encompassed him and searched through his memories to determine his validity to his claim. After a few minutes, the magic rose in a crescendo and with a giant flash of white light, it vanished and Harry rose up and made his back out of the chamber and back to his bed. Summer was going to be most interesting Harry thought to himself as he walked. I wonder what effects my claim will have. Well I am sure the goblins will be more than willing to tell me once I meet with them once school finished for the year.

The next morning, Harry made his way with his friends down to the great hall. On their way to the Gryffindor table, they were confronted by Draco Malfoy and his butt-buddies, Crabb and Goyle. Draco sneered at the four of them and said in his typical drawl

'Well look it's the squib, the weasel, scar-head and the mud-blood.'

Neville and Hermione quickly grabbed a hold of Ron's robes in order to prevent him from lunging at the blonde-headed Slytherin, causing Draco to smirk. However that expression was wiped from his features when Harry standing tall said in a formal voice

'Heir Malfoy, I Harry Potter heir to the most noble and ancient house of Potter do hereby ask for an apology upon yourself for the uncouth behaviour you have just exhibited not only to myself and my friends but also the heir to the most noble and ancient house of Longbottom; a family which I may add is in current alliance with the house of Potter. I am sure that your mother, a daughter of the most noble and ancient house of Black would be appalled at such a display by her only son.'

As Draco heard these words, his look first went from incredulous to angry, then he paled dramatically as he realised the gravity of his error. If his mother heard exactly what he had said to not only one but two of the heirs to most noble and ancient houses, he may not be able to sit for a week from the stinging hexes, let alone what his father would do if there were political implications to his words. Seeing no other way to get out of this mess, he said in a lower voice

'My apologies Heir Potter, Heir Longbottom for my words. They were not thought out and I deeply regret my words.' Nodding his head in acceptance and seeing Neville do the same, Harry watched as Malfoy and his minions made a hasty retreat to their table.

Ron and Hermione were gaping openly at Harry, while Neville was smiling at Harry. Reaching over with both hands, Harry gently shut the mouths of his two closest friends and made his way over to the table and sat himself down. He had nearly finished piling food onto his plate when the three with him finally made their way to the table as well after they had overcome their shock.

'That was bloody brilliant!' Ron declared with fervour and Hermione, too stunned to reprimand Ron for his language, only nodded in agreement.

'Well, Malfoy keeps going on about how pureblood society is better and how the old ways are the preferred way to do things. Unfortunately for him, his behaviour towards others he considers beneath him, even if they are not, is completely reprehensible in the old ways traditions. Neville for example is actually above Malfoy in social class as Malfoy's family is only a noble family not a most noble and ancient family. If his parents knew what he was doing and the danger it not only put himself in, but also his parents, they would probably withdraw him from Hogwarts and home-school him.' Harry replied to their looks. Finishing his food quickly as he was keen to get a good night's rest, Harry rose from the table and bidding his friends farewell for now, , left the great hall and made his way to his dorm once more. He knew for certain that he would not be getting much sleep in the next few days as the potions he was to take were likely to be quite uncomfortable, negating his ability to sleep until the treatments were over.


End file.
